The Last
by Meshakhad
Summary: Buffy kills her last vampire. Oneshot.


"So, you thought you could hide from me, did you?" the blonde Slayer sneered.

The brunette vampire backed away hesitantly. Her demonic visage couldn't hide the terror on her face.

"I'll have to admit it, I never thought it would be you," the redheaded witch smiled. "I didn't think you'd live to see 25 – well, I guess you didn't."

"I've lived for a thousand years," the vampire snarled. "I was smarter than the others. I kept out of serious trouble, didn't piss off anything more powerful than me, and avoided you."

"You're right, you know," the slayer replied. "You avoided me. First you wouldn't live on the same continent as me – you spent quite a while in Australia."

"Then, you wouldn't be on the same planet," the witch continued. "You moved to Mars."

"Then Epsilon Eridanus."

"The Grissom Sector."

"Finally, you hopped the first ship to Andromeda."

The witch gave the vampire a very cute smile, the way she always did when she complemented someone on an idea.

"It was also particularly clever of you not to turn anyone here. One vampire doesn't give off a lot of demonic energy – hard to detect."

"It took us a century to figure out you'd left the galaxy."

The vampire stopped backing up. She opened a cabinet, and withdrew a plasma pistol.

"_Shatter_." The witch waved her hand, and the weapon shattered into a million pieces.

"You know, you might want to check the warranty on that thing," the slayer commented.

The vampire had backed into a corner. She shifted to her human face.

"Please, let me go. I swear, I'll never hurt another human being again!"

"Sorry. You don't have a soul. I can't trust you."

"In that case…" the vampire shifted back to her game face. She drew herself into a combat stance.

The slayer held up her hand. "Wait. We should take a moment, appreciate the moment. Here we are, the last surviving Sunnydale High students – for that matter, the last surviving inhabitants of Sunnydale itself – two and a half million light years from home, looking almost exactly the way we did a thousand years ago." She took a deep breath. "If only Snyder could see us now."

"As I recall, he considered us his two worst students." Sheila let a small smile creep across her face.

"But this is more than that. This is a momentous occasion," Buffy continued. "I've been slaying vampires for a thousand years. I still remember my first." She turned her eyes to the vampire. "And this will be my last. _The_ last, in fact."

"Last what?" Sheila asked.

"Last slaying." She drew a stake out of her leather jacket. "When I put this through your heart, it will be the last slaying. Ever. Vampires will be extinct."

Sheila's yellow eyes widened. She turned to Willow. "Really?"

"It's true. I've searched the entire Milky Way. You're the last vampire in existence."

"Oh." Sheila was silent, then spoke again. "Where'd you get the stake?"

"What?"

"The stake. The one that will be used to kill the last vampire."

"Oh. I made it just before we left."

"I was kinda hoping for something special."

"Sorry, Sheila. I wanted to do this the old-fashioned way."

Buffy leapt at Sheila, who raised her arms to block the attack. As they fought, Buffy focused not just on fighting, but on savoring every blow. She remembered all those who had fought at her side, all those who had died.

_Charge_. Jenny, killed by Angelus in 1998.

_Dodge_. Kendra, killed by Drusilla in 1998.

_Punch_. Tara, shot by Warren in 2002.

_Kick_. Cordelia, ascended to a higher plane in 2002. Every couple centuries, she spoke to Buffy or Willow, giving them guidance.

_Lunge_. Anya, almost cut in two at the final battle over the Hellmouth in 2003.

_Block_. Spike, who sacrificed himself to destroy the Hellmouth and save the world.

_Thrust_. Faith, killed at the hands of a mob of vampires in St. Louis in 2008.

_Spinning kick_. Giles, dead of leukemia in 2011 at the age of 52.

_Thrown holoprojector_. Dawn, who killed herself to prevent a demon cult from using her blood to destroy the world in 2021.

_Combo_. Oz, killed in a plane crash in 2030.

_Near-staking_. Angel, who got his shanshu and died of cancer in 2074 after spending fifty years married to Buffy.

_Backflip_. Xander, dead of old age in 2131, age 151.

Now, only Buffy and Willow remained. Buffy had discovered that slayers were immune to old age, while Willow's magic kept her youthful.

Buffy knocked Sheila to the ground, and plunged the stake into her heart. She stared at the pile of dust for a while before sitting down.

"I can't believe it."

Willow sat down beside Buffy.

"You did it, Buffy. You killed them. They're gone. You wiped out the vampires."

They hugged. It was the embrace of friendship, of two allies who had depended on each other for a millennium. Together, they had completed the task the Shadow Men had started back in the Stone Age.

After about half an hour, Buffy broke the hug.

"So, wanna go shopping?"


End file.
